was called Ait, and Ai Ait, by the Greeks expressed [Greek: Aetia]:
[176][Greek: Eklethe de--kai AETIA.] The natives, in consequence of it,
were called [Greek: Aetioi], and [Greek: Aetai]; which was interpreted
eagles. Hence, we are told by Plutarch, that some of the feathered kind,
either eagles or swans, came from the remote parts of the earth, and
settled at Delphi. [177][Greek: Aetous tinas, e Kuknous, o Terentiane
Priske, muthologousin apo ton akron tes ges epi to meson pheromenous eis
tauto sumpesein Puthoi peri ton kaloumenon omphalon.] These eagles and
swans undoubtedly relate to colonies from Egypt and Canaan. I recollect but
one philosopher styled Cygnus; and, what is remarkable, he was of Canaan.
Antiochus, the Academic, mentioned by Cicero in his philosophical works,
and also by [178]Strabo, was of Ascaloun, in Palestine; and he was surnamed
Cygnus, the Swan: which name, as it is so circumstanced, must, I think,
necessarily allude to this country.

As in early times colonies went by the name of the Deity whom they
worshipped, or by the name of the insigne and hieroglyphic under which
their country was denoted, every depredation made by such people was placed
to the account of the Deity under such a device. This was the manner in
which poets described things: and, in those days, all wrote in measure.
Hence, instead of saying that the Egyptians, or Canaanites, or Tyrians,
landed and carried off such and such persons; they said, that it was done
by Jupiter, in the shape of an eagle, or a swan, or a bull: substituting an
eagle for Egypt, a swan for Canaan, and a bull for the city of [179]Tyre.
It is said of the Telchines, who were Amonian priests, that they came to
Attica under the conduct of Jupiter in the shape of an eagle.

[180][Greek: Aietos hegemoneue di aitheros antitupos Zeus.]

By which is meant, that they were Egyptian priests; and an eagle was
probably the device in their standard, as well as the insigne of their
nation.

Some of the same family were to be found among the Atlantes of Mauritania,
and are represented as having the shape of swans. Prometheus, in AEschylus,
speaks of them in the commission which he gives to Io: [181]_You must go_,
says he, _as far as the city Cisthene in the Gorgonian plains, where the
three Phorcides reside; those antient, venerable ladies, who are in the
shape of swans, and have but one eye, of which they make use in common._
This history relates to an Amonian temp